OBC Bill boards Opposition, averts full Parliament washout

NEW DELHI: After weeks of disruption, the Lok Sabha on Monday witnessed brief order when Union minister Virendra Kumar rose to introduce the politically sensitive 127th Constitution Amendment Bill, which seeks to restore the power of the states to prepare their own lists of OBCs. 

The Bill is likely to be taken for discussion and passage on Tuesday. The BJP has issued whip to party MPs to remain present in both Houses to ensure its passage. Being a Constitution amendment Bill, it requires order in the House as well as two-thirds of the members present voting in its favour. 

For the rest of the day, the Opposition continued vociferous protests while the governemnt pushed three more legislations – The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2021, The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021. 

The Opposition sought to be heard on the Bill concerning the scheduled tribes, with MPs Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Manish Tewari (Congress), Sudeep Bandyopadhyay (TMC), T R Baalu (DMK), and Supriya Sule (NCP) seeking the right to speak. They argued that the Bill shouldn’t be passed hurriedly in the din and accused the government of carrying out the legislative business even while the House isn’t in order. 

127th Constitution Amendment Bill

•  Articles amended — 338B, 342A, 366
•  Clauses inserted: Central List means the list prepared & maintained by the Centre for its own purposes
•  States, UTs may prepare separate lists for own purposes, different from Central List 
•  Inserting Clause 26C to state socially and educationally backward classes means such backward classes under Article 342A for the purposes of the Centre, states & UTs
•  Central List was unveiled in 1993
•  The Constitution (102) Amendment Act, 2018 provided for the Constitutional status to the National Backward Commission, which led to the judicial interpretation that only Centre can prepare the OBC list